In Washington, Rick Perry makes the case for Israel

Rick Perry made a passionate appeal for strong U.S. support for the embattled Jewish state of Israel Wednesday and told a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition that he would increase strategic aid to Israel if elected president.

“I wanna just clear something up,” the Texas governor told the audience at the RJC forum, attended by all the major GOP candidates except Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. “Strategic defensive aid, under a Perry administration, will increase to Israel.”

The RJC, formerly known as the National Jewish Coalition, describes itself as a “unique bridge between the Jewish community and Republican leaders.”

Perry spoke about his “special connection” to Israel dating back to his first visit there some 20 years ago. He said Israel will need unwavering American support in the face of an increasingly dangerous Iran that may be on the brink of developing nuclear weapons.

Perry said he supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but only if the Palestinians condemn the terrorist actions of the militant political party Hamas and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

Perry stirred controversy last month when he said during a Republican presidential candidate debate that foreign aid should be slashed to zero across the board, and that nations should then be eligible to regain that aid if they make the case that it benefits the United States. Perry said then that he included Israel in that category.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the pro-Israel Jewish group J Street, did not speak at the forum but said during the event that the GOP contenders shouldn’t let themselves get carried away by declaring support for all the policies of the current Israeli government and lose sight of realistic solutions to the conflict. Perry and the other contenders should be paying closer attention to the work of past Republican presidents, Ben-Ami said.

“This Republican field is staking out positions so far outside their own party’s policies of the past that the heads of former Secretaries of State and National Security Advisors should be spinning,” he said. “For years, it’s been a cornerstone of bipartisan American policy, from Nixon through Reagan and both Presidents Bush, to oppose the expansion of settlements . . . and to press both Israelis and Palestinians to compromise for the sake of peace and security.”

Ben-Ami’s organization is a moderate group that describes itself as representing “mainstream” Jewish Americans, and does not advocate for Jewish expansion into Palestinian territory.

The American Jewish vote leans heavily Democratic. Statistics maintained by the non-profit American Israeli Cooperative enterprise show that Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008. Ben Ami said Republicans should realize that Jews are not a single-issue group concerned only about Israel and that the economy and healthcare are also major factors.